Dr Richard Dron MSc, PhD, SFHEA, PGCAP, CMBE, ACMALT
Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems
Programme Leader, BSc Business Technology
My profile
Biography
Richard Dron is a Senior Lecturer in Business Information Systems teaching across the portfolio of Undergraduate, MSc and Degree Apprenticeships programmes in relation to Information Systems, Information Management and Technology Innovation. He has been educating in a higher education institutions, including leading, managing, directing key learning and teaching activities since 2015, having previously worked extensively in industry, and has many years of experience in technology project management.
He is Programme Leader for the award winning BSc Business Technology degree programme, enabling our students to develop skills needed in a modern digital business environment, such as identifying business challenges, finding technological solutions, managing technology projects and services, and analysing business data.
His research and consultancy relate to enabling implementation of innovation, processes, and technologies in SMEs and analysis methods for complex Social Media Data sets.
Professional qualifications and affiliations
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Certified Management & Business Educator
- Chartered Management Institute
- British Academy of Management
- Associate Member of the Association of Learning Technologies
Interests and expertise
Richard is primarily interested in enabling knowledge transfer in relation to the creation of product and service innovation within Digital Business SME, and this is a key focus and direction in relation to his research, grant applications, publications, teaching, and administrative roles that he has taken until this time. Through his professional and project experience he has had significant involvement in the enabling of knowledge creation and transfer. He is an active researcher and sits in both the Transforming Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation research platforms.
Impact
Richard is passionate about solving problems with technology and until joining Manchester Metropolitan University was managing the team of Salford Business School academics working on the AI Foundry Project, an ERDF project providing support to SMEs in Greater Manchester in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to become innovation ready and to enhance and develop new products and services - find out more about the project here.
As part of a Management KTP Richard is working to deliver large-scale digital transformation within Future Directions driven by a need for organisation-wide efficiencies (to scale growth whilst maintaining service quality), mitigate sector-wide resource and skills challenges and ensure compliance with the Government’s plans to digitise social care.
Projects
Future Directions Management KTP (MKTP): Proposed to deliver large-scale digital transformation within Future Directions driven by a need for organisation-wide efficiencies (to scale growth whilst maintaining service quality), mitigate sector-wide resource and skills challenges and ensure compliance with the Government’s plans to digitise social care. By March 2024, the Department of Health and Social Care aims for all (but at least 80%) Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care providers to be using a digital social care records platform. Whilst this is driving change across the sector, not all organisations are as ambitious in their vision for the breadth and impact of digitisation. Future Directions aspire to be digitally enabled at all levels, with integrated, real-time, responsive systems connecting people across the organisation, and enhancing access for external stakeholders; achieving this will be unique and persuasive within the sector. This MKTP addresses challenges related to:
- Integrating with, and removing reliance on, legacy operating systems.
- Data extraction.
- Creating a digitally enabled workforce to ensure organisation-wide adoption of new systems.
- Change management.
- Culture change.
Teaching
Richard develops, delivers and helps to lead undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and contributes to enhancing the student experience. His modules are focussed in the following areas:
- Digital Business Development
- Digital Business Implementation
- Technology Management
- Technology Lifecycle Management
- Managing Technology Projects
- Customer Lifecycle Management
- IT Consultancy
Supervision
Richard supervises research projects that focus on technology innovation and its interaction with business models and organisational capacities to innovate. He is open to supervise both MSc and PhD Research within these spaces.
Research outputs
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Chapters in books
Fletcher, G., Dron, R., Gimeno, M. (2021) 'The single silo university.' In Remenyi, D. (ed.) Excellence in university leadership and management: case histories. Academic Conferences International, pp. 191-207.
Fletcher, G., Griffiths, M., Dron, R. (2019) 'What to plan and when to make decisions with data.' In Fenton, A., Fletcher, G., Griffiths, M. (ed.) Strategic Digital Transformation: A Results-Driven Approach. London: Routledge, pp. 132-139.
Griffiths, M., Dron, R. (2019) 'Enabling organisational change: co-creation, co-production and co-consumption.' In Fenton, A., Fletcher, G., Griffiths, M. (ed.) Strategic Digital Transformation: A Results-Driven Approach. Routledge, pp. 165-173.
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Internet publications
Downing, J., Dron, R. (2018) Incendie de la tour Grenfell à Londres : quand Twitter réfute fake news et islamophobie.. https://theconversation.com/incendie-de-la-tour-grenfell-a-londres-quand-twitter-refute-fake-news-et-islamophobie-98352.
Downing, J., Dron, R. (2018) Grenfell Tower: how Twitter users fought off fake news to honour Muslim heroes.. https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-how-twitter-users-fought-off-fake-news-to-honour-muslim-heroes-98059.
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Journal articles
Downing, J., Dron, R. (2022) 'Theorising the ‘Security Influencer’: Speaking security, terror and Muslims on social media during the Manchester bombings.' New Media and Society, 24(5) pp. 1234-1257.
Downing, J., Gerwens, S., Dron, R. (2022) 'Tweeting terrorism: Vernacular conceptions of Muslims and terror in the wake of the Manchester Bombing on Twitter.' Critical Studies on Terrorism, 15(2) pp. 239-266.
Chadwick, S., Fenton, A., Dron, R., Ahmed, W. (2021) 'Social Media Conversations About High Engagement Sports Team Brands.' IIM Kozhikode Society and Management Review, 10(2) pp. 178-191.
Leigh, J., Vasilica, C., Dron, R., Gawthorpe, D., Burns, E., Kennedy, S., Kennedy, R., Warburton, T., Croughan, C. (2020) 'Redefining undergraduate nurse teaching during the coronavirus pandemic: use of digital technologies.' British Journal of Nursing, 29(10) pp. 566-569.
Downing, J., Dron, R. (2020) 'Tweeting Grenfell: Discourse and networks in critical constructions of British Muslim social boundaries on social media.' New Media and Society, 22(3) pp. 449-469.
Press and media
The Conversation
Downing, J. and Dron, R. (2018). Incendie de la tour Grenfell à Londres : quand Twitter réfute fake news et islamophobie. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/incendie-de-la-tour-grenfell-a-londres-quand-twitter-refute-fake-news-et-islamophobie-98352
Downing, J. and Dron, R. (2018). Grenfell Tower: how Twitter users fought off fake news to honour Muslim heroes. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-how-twitter-users-fought-off-fake-news-to-honour-muslim-heroes-98059